Volleyball Game

The main event of Lobo Middle School on Saturday is the final day of the season’s first volleyball tournament. Today the eighth grade girls are playing for a chance at third place. Entering the air conditioned gym the dominate sound is that of volleyballs hitting the glossed wooden floor as the girls of both team practice.  There is no price of admissions which seems odd for during last basketball season in the winter of 2013 there was, I wonder if the school has adopted a new policy of not charging the family members and supporters of the athletes. Approaching the bleachers to take a seat I notice there is not a great deal of homemade posters to cheer on the girls, only two including mine to cheer on my athlete and a mother who we'll call Mrs. Spirit. Looking around the bleachers, the majority of the spectators appear to be adults of Hispanic ethnicity, there is a lack of supporters of middle school age cheering on their peers, I wonder if its due to the fact that it is nine in the morning on a Saturday or if it’s because it is one of the first games of the season.  There is not much discussion going on amongst the supporters and the little that I can hear is done so in small groups with the people either speaking Spanish or a mix of Spanish and English.

The game is beginning, against Lobo Team and Orange Uniform Team. Those girls not playing on the court  are not sitting together as team but rather in small clusters on two or three – have they yet to bond as a team or is this the socially practice of adolescent girls in keeping with cliques.  Mrs. Spirit and my party of my parents and myself appear to be cheering the loudest and most frequent whether it be to encourage the girl or applaud them on a good play. Of the other audience members though not as loud and frequent as Mrs. Poster and I, it appears that parents of the Lobo team are cheering more than Orange Uniform Team parents even though Orange won the first game.  As the games goes on I see Mangers from both team are on their phones. The Coaches of both teams are acting in different manners – Orange Team’s coach is middle aged woman who is scolding her girls on mistakes (she can be heard from where I sit across the court) while Lobo Team’s coach is a young adult and she appears to be correcting the girls (she is demonstrating proper bump technique, I can barely hear her from across the court), I’m curious if this is because she is closer to the player's age.

Team Lobo wins the second game. Game three, the deciding match, commences. Now both team’s spectators are reacting more vocally to the mistakes and points being made of each team.  Team Lobo wins, 15 to 8.  Orange Team shakes Team Lobo hand and then go off to what I assume is to discuss the game and find their parents on the bleachers. Team Lobo is jolly, presented with the trophy they are exclaiming loudly amongst themselves and all are smiling, all girls seem to be interacting with one another. They are taking pictures as team. The main method of taking photos are phones, with another parent and me using digital cameras.  I notice as I am around the girls waiting for my athlete to get her gym bag that the girls are forming little groups again and are speaking mainly English. My athlete with her stuff collected ask if she can go on the bus with the team rather than ride home with us. Maybe she wants to rejoice with the team.